Implementing a First CNC for Scheduling and Configuring TSN Networks

Novel industrial applications are leading to important changes in industrial systems. One of the most important changes is the need for systems that are capable to adapt to changes in the environment or the system itself. Because of their nature many of these applications are distributed, and their network infrastructure is key to guarantee the correct operation of the overall system. Furthermore, in order for a distributed system to be able to adapt, its network must be flexible enough to support changes in the traffic during runtime. The Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) Task Group has proposed a series of standards that aim at providing deterministic real-time communications over Ethernet. TSN also provides centralised online configuration and control architectures which enable the online configuration of the network. A key part in TSN’s centralised architectures is the Centralised Network Configuration element (CNC). In this work we present a first implementation of a CNC capable of scheduling time-triggered traffic and deploying such configuration in the network using the Network Configuration (NETCONF) protocol. We also assess the correctness of our implementation using an industrial use case provided by Volvo Construction Equipment.